Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/266

 250 JIAGNA GRAECIA. rising colony of Thurii at an early period of its existence (Polyaen. ii. 10); but it was not till after 400 15. c. that their power assumed a formidable aspect towards the Greeks in general. The terri- tory of Thurii was the first object of their hos- tilities, but the other cities were not insensible to their danger; and hence the general league of the Italian Greeks in b. c. 393, as already mentioned, was directed as much against the Lucanians as against Dionysius. Unfortunately, their arms met with equal ill success in both quarters : and in r.. c. 390 the confederate forces were defeated by the Lucanians with great slaughter near Laiis. (Diod. xiv. 101, 102; Strab. vi. p. 253.) That city had already fallen into the hands of the in- vaders, who now pressed on towards the south, and seem to have spread themselves with great rapidity throughout the whole of the Bruttian peninsula. Here they became so formidable that the younger Dionysius •was compelled to abandon the policy of his father (who had courted the alliance of the Lucanians, and even rendered them active assistance), und turn his arms against them, though with Httle effect. A period of great confusion and disorder appears to have en- sued, and the rise of the Bruttian people, which took place at this period (b. c. 3.56), though it in some measure broke the power of the Lucanians, was so far from giving any relief to the Greek cities that they soon found the Bruttians still more for- midable neighbours. The flourishing cities of Te- rina and Hipponium were conquered by the bar- barians (Diod. xvi. 15; Strab. vi. p. 256): Rhegium and Locri, though they maintained their nationality, suffered almost as severely from the oppressions and exactions of the younger Dionysius; while Crotona, long the most powerful city in this part of Italy, seems never to have recovered from the blow in- flicted on it by the elder despot of that name [Cro- tona], and-was with difficulty able to defend itself from the repeated attacks of the Bruttians. (Diod. xix. 3, 10.) Meanwhile, the Lucanians had tumed their arms against the more northerly cities on the Tarentine gulf. Here the Thurians seem, as before, to have borne the brunt of the attack ; but at length Ta- rentum itself, which had hitherto stood aloof, and had apparently not even joined in the league of B.C. 393, was compelled to take up arms in its ovn defence. The Tarentines could have suffered com- paratively but little from the causes which had so severely impaired the pro.<;perity of the other cities of Magna Graecia ; and Tarentum was undoubtedly at this time the most opulent and powerful of the Greek cities in Italy. But its citizens were already enervated by indolence and luxury ; and when they found themselves threatened by the forces of the Lucanians, combined with their old enemies the Messapians, they mistrusted their own resources, and applied to their parent city of Sparta for assist- ance. Archidamus, king of Sparta, accepted the invitation, and proceeded to Italy with a consider- able force, where he appears to have carried on the ■war for some years, but was finally defeated and slain in a battle near Manduria, b. c. 338. (Diod. xvi. 63, 88.) Only a few years afterwards, b, c. 3.32, Alexander king of Epirus was invited over to Italy for the same purpose. The history of his expedition is, unfortunately, very imper.ectly known to us; though it is clear that his military operations were attended with much success, and must have exercised considerable influence upon the fortunes of MAGNA GEAECIA. the Greek cities. Though invited, in the first in- stance, by the Tarentines, he subsequently quarrelled with that people, and even turned his arms against them, and tookHeraclea, their colony and dependency. At the same time he defeated the combined forces of the Lucanians and Bruttians in several successive battles, retook Terina, Consentia, and several other towns, and penetrated into the heart of Bruttium, where he was slain by a Lucanian exile, who was serving in his own army, B.C. 326. (Liv. viii. 17, 24; Justin, xii. 2.) After his death, the wars between the Tarentines and Lucanians appear to have continued with little intermission ; though we have no further account of them till the year 303 b. c, when the former people again sued to Sparta for assistance, and Cleo- nymus, the uncle of the Spartan king, repaired to Tarentum with a large mercenary force. So formid- able did this armament appear that both the Mes- sapians and Lucanians were speedily induced to sue for peace ; while Metapontum, which, for some reason or other, had opposed the views of Cleonynms, was reduced by force of arms. (Diod. xx. 104.) The Spartan prince, however, soon alienated all his allies by his luxury and rapacity, and quitted Italy the object of universal contempt. We have very little information as to the wars of Agathocles in Bruttium ; though we learn that he made himself master of Hipponium and Crotona, and occupied the latter city with a garrison. It is evident, therefore, that his designs were directed as much against the Greek cities as their barbarian neighbours ; and the alliance which he concluded at the same time with the lapygiaiis and Peucetians could only have been with a view to the humiliation of Tarentum. (Diod. xxi. 2, 8.) His ambitious de- signs in this quarter were interrupted by his death, B. c. 289. Only a few years later than this took place the celebrated expedition of Pyrrhus to Italy (b. c. 281 — 274), which marks a conspicuous era in the his- tory of Magna Graecia. Shortly before that event, the Thurians, finding themselves hard pressed and their city itself besieged by the Lucanians, had con- cluded an alliance with the Romans, who raised the siege and defeated the assailants, b. c. 282. (Appian, Samn. 7 ; Val. Max. i. 8. § 6.) This was the first occasion that brought the Roman power down to the shores of the Tarentine gulf ; and here they almost immediately after came into collision with the Taren- tines themselves. [Tarentum.] That people, con- scious of their inability to resist the power of these new enemies, now invoked the assistance of Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, at the same time that they con- cluded a league with the Lucanians and Samnites, so long the inveterate enemies of Rome. Hence, when Pyrrhus landed in Italy, he found himself supported at the same time by all the remaining Greek cities in that country, as well as by the barbarian nations with whom they had been so long at war. It is un- necessary to enter into a detailed account of his campaigns : notwithstanding his first successes, his alliance proved of no real advantage to the Greeks, while his visit to Sicily in b. c. 278, and his final departure in b.c. 274, left them at the mercy of the victorious Romans. Tarentum itself was taken by the consuls in b. c. 272. Crotona and Locri had previously fallen into the hands of the Romans ; while Rhegium, which was held by a revolted body of Campanian troops, originally placed there as a gar- rison, was finally reduced to subjection in b. c. 271.